JB Pritzker Recounts Conversation With Local Business To Highlight 'Terrible Effect' From Tariffs

10 hours ago

At a Center for American Progress event on Tuesday, Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) spoke about the harmful effect that President Trump's tariffs could have on small business owners.

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00:00Thank you. Just a note on the tariffs, when he excludes companies for the tariffs, they're

00:07always the big companies, but the small business suppliers don't get the exemption.

00:11Can I give you an example of a business in Illinois? I was just with a small business,

00:16start-up business, a craft brewer. We have a big craft brewery industry in Illinois.

00:22It's not unique to the Midwest, but we have a lot of beer drinkers. I think Wisconsin

00:28has more bars per capita than any other, which I admire, but we have a lot of craft

00:35brewers. We have a great industry there, but there are four guys who come from the south

00:40side of Chicago who started a business, craft brewery business, and it's award-winning.

00:47I tried all four of the beers they make. I sat with these guys and talked to them about

00:53their business, but this was before the tariffs, about two months ago. I asked them, what will

00:59happen to your business if the tariffs on Canada and Mexico go in place? They told me

01:06that if the tariffs on Canada go in place, the cost of barley will go up by 25%, and

01:16that's a prime ingredient, and they buy it from Canada. The cost of aluminum to make

01:22the cans that they put their beer in will go up enormously, and to buy a can of their

01:28beer will go up at least 25%, partly because others will take advantage of the fact that

01:36the smaller start-up business will struggle. And so these guys said, if the tariffs go

01:43in place, we may have to go out of business. Well, here we are. Those tariffs are in place,

01:49and unfortunately, that brewery is going to struggle. Now, they're hoping and praying

01:54that these tariffs will end sometime soon so that they can continue on the path of building

02:00their business before they have to go out of business. But this is the kind of example

02:06that the tariffs are having a terrible effect on, again, it's go to the grocery store,

02:13your tomatoes, your lettuce, your beer at the grocery store. By the way, the big beer

02:18companies, they're going to absorb some of the costs for a little while. They're going

02:22to suffer profitability, but they're going to be able to survive for some period of time,

02:31and also they're global. The small beer companies and the start-up craft brewer aren't going

02:37to make it if Donald Trump succeeds at what he's trying to do.

JB Pritzker Recounts Conversation With Local Business To Highlight 'Terrible Effect' From Tariffs

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